u/InternetBackwash

One of the most common doomer talking points about the midterms relates to the belief that in the event of a Democratic Victory, it would be the end of the current admin and thus would be prevented by the admin through every way including taking over the country or altering the results to make it so no one but Republicans win. And while I would mention how those types of scenarios aren't possible to succeed, I wanted to discuss an element of that theory that I feel goes under the radar.

Specifically, the element regarding a midterm victory meaning the subsequent end of all actions by the admin, which isn't completely accurate. While the results of a Democratic victory would mean the beginning of investigations into the admin, preventing unnecessary expenditures in planned budgets, not allowing various bills to pass, and given a Democratic Senate preventing unqualified people to be allowed in including Supreme court Justice nominees, it doesn't mean a complete impeachment like many believe.

While a Democratic victory in the House could mean the beginning phase of impeachment to begin, getting to a successful indictment in the Senate would require Republicans to vote as well, since there aren't enough seats up in November for Dems to get the necessary supermajority to fully indict. So while Dems can do a lot with a Democratic congress, there isn't a real path for the victory that many believe will occur afterwards, especially one that would mean supposed "scorched earth" tactics by the admin as a result.

But that doesn't also mean that the midterms are useful either. On top of the things I mentioned that would result from a Democratic congress, it also helps allow more progressives to be in congress on top of the ones currently in office which can inspire others to run in 2030 and beyond.

Also in a smaller way, state representation such as state reps and state senators, especially in the South can help mitigate gerrymandered maps and push back against statewide legislation that might be dangerous to those affected.

And the midterms not being the end point is important for making people less likely to drop out of caring about politics after a Democrat gets into office after 2028 and repeating what happened after Biden got into office after 2020. I was actually an example of someone who stopped paying attention to politics after that happened, only focusing again during 2024. And this is a pattern that needs to be addressed if people are to vote for continued representation that makes the country a better place in the future rather than pretending that it doesn't matter anymore.

Even in the event that the midterms did successfully result in the admin being impeached and removed, it doesn't mean that the battle is over, and it seems that many doomers and the average voter thinks that it would be over.

If things will be better as a country, than the belief that the current political situation is a TV show that can be ignored after people get bored or when people believe the issue is solved all at once needs to end. One of the reasons why I think many claim only "revolution" will solve issues is because elections don't automatically result in all issues being solved at once, and the belief that the midterms will solve all issues stems from a similar need for an easy solution rather than it being a part of a dedicated path.

So apparently $20 million will be spent on these gloves which seems pretty alarming, is there any optimism that this could be stopped by courts or some other way?

So the oil reserves are still being depleted, and I felt I should ask again, is there any optimism surrounding when reserves run dry, what would the most likely economic impact (oil prices, economy ramifications, etc.) be of reserves running out, and are any worst case scenarios likely/What's the optimism if those scenarios happen?

One of the things I've noticed regarding actions from the administration regardless of the size or importance of them is the immediate response from doomers to lament that it is part of a grand, nefarious scheme to either destroy democracy or secure power. And usually in describing these supposed "plans", doomers tend to imply that it is in plain sight, but that they are the only ones capable of seeing it and revealing it to the masses.

Take for instance the Iran conflict. Earlier I made a post describing how Timothy Snyder, a well known and apparently highly regarded historian, claimed that the Iran war was being kept up with the intention of having Iran attack us directly, or if not, that a false flag incident would be imminent as a way of grabbing power. Not to repeat myself too much but Snyder's only evidence was that it was something that Germany in the 1930's did to retain power, and he believed that the admin would do the same thing.

This conspiracy theory failed to mention the various differences between Germany and the US in terms of size, population, histories, and other factors that make the same method being unlikely to work in a US scenario. Also it failed to mention that there are a number of reasons why the US is still involved in the war that aren't related to trying to make something like this happen, that being an inability to exit the war as well as attempting to profit off of it via oil companies. Occam's razor is very applicable here and shows why there's more to the story than some nefarious scheme that only Snyder can see.

Also you can look at elections. First there is the belief that no matter the turnout in November, Elon will supposedly flip a switch and thousands of satellites will beam down a victory for republicans. This ultimate plan apparently doesn't need to discuss why things like the SAVE Act or voter suppression tools have been used if the path to victory was this obvious, as well as the fact that this plan would require a lot of research, technical effort, silence, and luck to work, as well as being able to alter the results of counties that use paper ballots as well as electronic machines to make enough of a victory happen out of thin air.

And speaking of elections, there was a video posted by an MSNBC anchor via TikTok that claimed that the master plan to steal November was due to the admin planning...something. Basically he tried to argue that voter intimidation from people sent by the admin during primaries was the sign of something worse to come since, while they weren't technically doing anything, they could be.

This video was posted to the actual MSNBC account and was truly terrible journalism. The concern over if there was some sort of larger wave of voter intimidation as well as the unverified reasons why these people were at these polling places outside of that does make sense, but not only are the points made by this reporter just speculation at best, but it also argues that intimidation can't be bad enough, and that there has to be some larger plot going on for this to make sense, which undermines concerns over actual voter suppression.

Another one of these supposed plans could be seen from the renovations in DC. I've seen many claiming that every attempt from the Granite helipad, to the Reflecting pool, to the planned arch, to the changes to the security on the White House door, to of course, the Ballroom and the bunker underneath as signs of this admin not planning on leaving office after January 2029.

I've gone through this before but again, Occam's razor is useful here. The most simple and more likely scenario is from either attempting to secure a legacy, or attempting to secure money from no-bid contracts and projects that cost a lot more than they should and don't get finished correctly. The reflecting pool is an obvious example of this, but also the bunker and the ballroom are other examples. There is no logical or feasible way for the East wing renovations to be completed in the time from now till the next president rolls around, especially with the way that the bunker has been claimed to go 6 stories underground with various research, medical, and military stations. If there is a master plan being concocted, than it has no real wind behind it.

Finally, one of the biggest nothing burger plans comes from Minnesota earlier this year. I heard many people claiming that the occupation was the secret way to declare martial law and control the country completely. This turned out to not only not happen, but also showed the resilience of people and the way that public opinion made the occupation end.

There are many other examples, such as the fears that July 4th of this year, April 20th of last year or November of last year were going to be the days that martial law would be enacted and free will ceased to be, but this is already too long. Basically, the idea that there is some secret plans being pushed that apparently only a select few can see despite it being apparently happening wide in the open is just fearmongering and clickbait. On top of this, it also makes the normally bad actions of the admin seemingly less important than these plans that never come to fruition.

Like many of you, I am of the mind that while a full on election steal isn't possible in November, there is a very high likelihood of voter suppression tactics being used to move the results away from a Democratic victory in both the House and Senate. From gerrymandering, to voter intimidation, limiting mail in ballots, pushing voter id laws, and purging voter rolls, as well as post-election methods like discrediting opposing ballots and pushing the narrative of fraud in the midterms, there are a myriad of ways that the admin can push for more and more voters to either not vote, not have their votes counted, or not be able to vote, and this is pretty alarming.

But one of the most important things to note about these methods is that they can all be pushed back against by either states, courts, or by the average person.

For instance, when it comes to voter intimidation, the simple act of voting with groups of people can help mitigate this, as well as helping encourage those who might not vote otherwise to do so.

Also, gerrymandering can actually be mitigated through the act of voting in a way. Specifically, by voting in new state reps, senators, and judges can make new state maps less likely to be made with the intention of gerrymandering and removing representation in the future.

And as for methods such as purging voter rolls, pushing for voter id laws, and limiting mail in ballots, this can all be challenged through either courts and/or by states pushing back on this. While many might say that courts would allow this or that congress would pass laws putting these into effect, courts (yes, even the Supreme Court), have been some of the most eager to push back on these types of changes, and the potential for congress to successfully pass the legislation needed to make these changes work is very limited as it is.

You could even look at other methods of voter suppression that aren't official like belittling the act of voting by claiming that the midterms would be "rigged by Elon so elections don't matter" and challenge this by replying with the ways voting still matters and does make an impact, such as Hungary or November 2025, as well as potentially discussing why the idea of altering the results of an election nationwide doesn't work and without evidence is just a conspiracy theory (as well as making people less likely to vote which does change the results of the election).

I don't want to make this much longer, but I hope to make people realize that these tactics can be mitigated and prevented from succeeding. Just because these tactics are attempted, doesn't mean that the election is pointless, all it means is that it is a much longer process, but one that we can still win.

So this is sort of an optimistic post, and sort of not. I was doing my usual anxious scrolling because of concerns over the Oil reserves running dry and what that could mean, and came across a comment section giving every theory under the sun about what that could look like.

Some claimed that Reserves would run dry in September, others say after the midterms, others say it's right around the corner.

When it came to the outcome of reserves running out, some suggested it would be not good with oil being up $5-6 and food costing more, others saying it would be pretty bad with up to $8-10, food costing a lot more, and a potential recession, and others implying apocalyptic scenarios such as oil reaching untold prices with potential shortages, food shortages, economic ramifications leading from a great depression to global economic collapse, and even countries such as Russia collapsing completely.

And given that people who know a lot about oil seem to not know what the scale of reserves running out would look like besides costs being higher, I felt anxious given no way to know for sure what could happen.

But that's when a thought occured to me: Most of the people giving their ideas on what could happen, especially those earlier commenters, are just as in the dark as I am.

You probably know enough about the Internet to listen to every comment about what the future holds since if they were true than Democracy would have fallen dozens of times and the elections last November would have been rigged. But what I mean is that when it comes to oil, most of the people making these suggestions have no idea all of the various surrounding details and ongoings, nor general knowledge about oil and economics to make an accurate assessment about this situation especially.

The predictions of the future outcome have been so wildly varied that it seems everyone from researchers with no clear answers to doomers expecting Armageddon are making blind predictions rather than making accurate guesses (Many Doomers just say "It's gonna be really bad, you guys don't know how bad it's about to get, worse than anything" which I assume is because they don't know anything about it at all)

Now this is optimistic and sort of not because on one hand, many predictions, including the apocalyptic ones, are made from general anxiety and a knowledge that at the very least prices will go up, but on the other hand, this goes back into no solid guesses on what could happen which is a very anxiety inducing thing, especially when none of the potential results are good.

And it doesn't help that many predictions are usually out of date with things like the Red Sea being blockaded as well, China releasing their own, large reserves, and how many times the war has stopped and started and how much the strait has opened and closed.

But I think that the general assortment of guesses and attempts to make certain claims by those with no expert knowledge is beneficial for those who might feel anxious due to someone making certain claims about how "We're about to enter a worse Great Depression", since this seems to be a topic that accurately determining the outcome of is a losing game.

As we continue the seemingly endless Iran War, I've seen many afraid of the usage of nuclear weaponry from either Iran to the US, the US to Iran, or from the US on US soil as a way of creating a false flag to grab power. This has been due to things such as Iran desiring to own a nuclear device more than ever due to the war, and the fear that they could use one if their own safety due to infrastructure attacks could be compromised.

On top of this, accounts like Timothy Snyder posting about how 1930's Germany used a false flag so "obviously" the US would do the exact same thing and succeed the exact same way made people more afraid of this possibility.

First of all, apart from the whole hurricane debacle of the first term, Trump isn't a big fan of nuclear weaponry, which means the likelihood of it being used is not that high. Also this plan has little supporting evidence other than "power grab", which makes it not that realistic.

Secondly, Iran's nuclear program, while potentially not destroyed, is still likely damaged due to attacks throughout this conflict. And the idea that a weapon that could reach US soil is very unlikely. Also, if Iran were to use this, they would face the repercussion of MAD, which is a big deterrent for everybody from using these.

And even if you took the idea that the US created a false flag to justify attacking Iran even more, the resulting attacks, if they were to use nuclear weaponry, the radiation would spill into other countries, which would have following consequences.

Also, the US attacking Iran would lead to potential MAD fears from other countries that might feel inclined to join in the conflict.

All of this is to say that the chances of these weapons being used is slim to none. Even in desperate scenarios, this is one of the most universally understood no-nos, and that isn't changing any time soon, even in this admin.

So Truth Social has put out a way to get posts from high access accounts faster via paying $100,000 a month. This has raised a lot of concerns of corruption and the fact that giving info about proposed legislation, plans, and activities from the President of all positions to people who pay exorbitant amounts could lead to insider trading.

While it's not a major fear of mine, I was wondering if this might be stopped in courts due to potential corruption, could this plan truly limit access to ongoing plans and potential legislation in the admin, (And I'm not worried about this but I saw a doomer concerned about this, could there be an alternative reason for this plan besides money?)

I recently watched an Amandasmildtakes video discussing how the right is avoiding discussing the ongoings of Iran and how similar it is to the ways that the right avoided talking about Iraq in the 2000's. The video was well made, but my issue was several of the comments.

One of the comments described how the Iran War is so unpopular that it is incredibly likely that the Republicans lose the midterms due to it. Unfortunately, the replies to this weren't as confident. One person was afraid that "Trump's gonna do whatever he can to rig the midterms, I hope we're organizing right now!", another claimed that "Musk Is back, so maybe not...", another reply stated that, "Blue maga is going to do everything they can to sabotage that unfortunately", and another separate comment claimed that, "Republicans are doing this cause they know that the midterms will be rigged so why bother..."

This isn't even getting into someone saying that Trump will get Ukraine to attack Iran and then China and Russia will join the conflict and a world war would start, because why not.

But between this and another account Amandasmildtakes follows called "thehumanityarchive" which was reiterating that quote Trump made "You'll never have to vote again" and implying that this means that the midterms are going to be rigged (Although it seems this post must have been deleted), I wanted to make the case not about how 2024 wasn't rigged (Although I still believe this and will talk about it endlessly, but that voting is still an incredibly valuable practice and that other than voter suppression tactics, there isn't a way to stop voting in this country.

I made a previous post about this, but doomers tend to take any bad policy or action as a sign that due to the bad press that could be made during the elections that the midterms must be rigged in some large enough capacity to ignore that factor. And as I discussed, the case could be made that it is more of a result of lacking forward thinking, desiring money and short term gains, and expecting your voters to vote for you regardless of what actions you do.

Also, the claim about Musk relies on the idea that 2024 was fully stolen across the board, and ignores the amount of money spent in the Wisconsin Supreme Court Election that ended up doing nothing.

The quotes from Trump about "Never voting again" could easily be seen as implying that his popularity would lead to people wanting him to stay in office beyond a second term (doesn't mean he can, nor the idea that every election would be stolen), or that this was an attempt at "trolling" any democrats listening (unfortunately this is very likely).

These claims about how elections or voting don't matter don't just act as a way of ignoring the actual tools of voting suppression being used, but they act as a way of suppressing voters by making them think going to vote wouldn't matter, which is terribly incorrect. Voting has an impact from the smallest town council race, mayoral, school board, or sheriff race, to the largest races of house reps, senators, and the presidential.

And one of Amanda's most consistent beliefs through her content is that the smaller races, especially in areas like the South, are at the most important time for people to vote. So the fact that many of these commenters, as well as the creators she follows who it seems have turned doomer very recently, are pushing this rhetoric feel very ignorant of the page they're on. I don't know if it's because these doomers are trying to find hope and not succeeding, or trying to push back on an account trying to give hope, but these comments fail to comprehend the posts they're on.

If there is a scheme to override the will of the voters that could work, than voter suppression tactics like these commenters are the most likely to succeed. Our elections aren't in danger of elections being cancelled, martial law, elections being stolen electronically, or any similar fear, but they are in danger of fatigue, fearmongering, gerrymandering, and doomers.

You've probably heard people implying that many of the events, projects, laws, and plans in the last two years has been in some way a distraction from a larger scheme going on in the background, or a distraction from something like the Epstein files not being fully released.

Both have their truths in many different ongoings of the admin, but then there's the doomer theory about distraction, and that is that pretty much anything can be a distraction for a larger conspiracy theory, such as that military parade last year being a distraction from calling martial law, the world cup being a distraction from attacking any worldwide visitors, or any other event being called a distraction right before democracy is taken from us.

One of these stems from a proposed plan from the FBI to use Artificial intelligence to target Americans as potential threats before any crimes take place. Now this is a blatantly horrific idea, one that is basically a dumb version of minority report that is wildly unconstitutional. And many suggest that this is a distraction from arresting political opposition to the admin.

I can't say that it's a wild leap to make considering the awfulness of this plan, especially in conjunction with other plans made such as the attacks on "leftist terrorists" or the whole NSPM-7 plan. But when you start thinking about the opposing logistics of such an idea, it begins to not seem as realistic.

On the surface, surveillance is a reasonable concern. But looking at the amount of people unhappy with the admin, the lack of people willing to aid in arresting a majority of the country, the lack of general prison space, congress, courts (even the supreme court), protesters, a decrease in support from the base, and lack of time to fully succeed in such a plan before being stopped, it doesn't seem that realistic to work.

But I think the point of this is to act as a distraction, from plans that could succeed. Not only does this act as a way to make people more afraid to speak out, protest, and more importantly vote, but it also distracts people from things like the War in Iran, the economy, the files, general lack of success in the admin, and the midterms. And if not as a talking point, it makes people afraid to talk about those other things since this is the new worry of the day.

This isn't to say that nothing is wrong and that you shouldn't worry, it is a blatantly authoritarian move. But that doesn't mean it is successful. Many comments about this on various sites imply that even though this isn't something he can do, legally or feasibly, he will either do it anyway (and apparently work out completely well), courts and Republicans in congress will let him do it, or Democrats will allow legislation to pass which would allow this to happen because they're "too weak to do anything". And all of this is incredibly unlikely and is just feeding into the "unstoppable god-king" belief about Trump.

This action, as well as the other "successful" attempts at persecuting political enemies won't work in that way, but work as the real distraction. Just like beliefs surrounding martial law, the insurrection act, national emergencies, voting being cancelled, the Eisenhower Orders, staying in office, staying in the Ballroom bunker, or any other supposed "takeover plan", this keeps people's eyes off the ball, and only helps the admin in their real goals.

So like usual, this all started from a doomer post that I saw on the usual suspect, Instagram. This post was from an account called "TheGrayCanary" with over 200k followers The video I saw had the headline "Yes, It's Happening". From the vague ominous sound I knew what I was getting into, but I decided to watch.

For context, this video started with what seemed to be about 30 seconds of varying vague nothing speech like, "It's happening, I know what you're feeling, and yes it's here. After a while, it's happening." And after a bit of rambling about authoritarianism, this post would then discuss how we were on track to becoming 1930's Germany (Yes, Doomers have taken to this claim a lot more in the last few weeks), due to the admin's attempt of attacking Fauci over the pandemic.

Now putting aside the fact that this attempt is a nothing burger that, while bad that it's happening at all, is still destined to fail if every other attempt says something, this is a very random incident to take as the biggest piece of evidence that dictatorship is on the horizon. The video also discussed concerns over Fauci being used as a scapegoat to ignore what's going on in situations like the economy or Iran, which might be true and again while bad on the surface doesn't mean it will work. Courts still have a say in this and aren't very keen on political persecutions, and there isn't any other way around courts (Yes, even in the event of insurrection act being called which isn't the same as martial law, and no, martial law isn't a thing in the US to my knowledge).

This video also made me realize something important: Most, if not all of these doomer videos, are made to be incredibly ominous, but also more importantly, incredibly vague. I can't tell if this is a way of gaming the algorithms, or if it's a way of making people more afraid so they keep watching, but it has been apparent that most of these tend to follow a very similar path in saying very little in the opening sentences, before heading into the main points about how democracy has truly fallen this time due to theories about national emergencies, the ballroom bunker, or anything else.

Also, As I've said in other posts, the ways that doomers such as this individual hypothesize how democracy has "fallen" so far that we're "just like 1930's Germany", it not only is based off of little evidence, but is also very likely to make people less likely to vote, protest, or speak out about what may be happening, because these posts imply that nothing can be done, which is wrong. And the idea that we are close to such a country is very off track, and only makes any points made less likely to be taken seriously.

Creators such as these post very scary and ominous messages about how "It's time, the end has come, your concerns are real and all is bad. Democracy has fallen and hope is lost with it", for either attention, or to make people afraid. And the ways that most of these posts stay the same is getting larger and larger. I can't tell you how many of these vague posts I've seen the last couple of months, but they've grown louder, and lacking more and more substance.

What I hope to say is, if someone tries to post about how the end is here, but takes decades to get the point and uses very little evidence, avoid the account entirely.

So in one of my previous posts I made a point to talk about a man named Timothy Snyder, a seemingly intelligent and well respected individual with historical knowledge who made a post fearmongering about the "inevitability" of the admin using Iran to create a false flag and thus, take over the country and all freedoms get ended and such. I made it clear in that post that while I didn't want to discredit him at all, his only real support for this claim of "inevitability" was the fact that 1930's Germany (Which to be fair is the area of history that he specialized in), did the same thing, and thus the US would go down the same exact route.

Now I can get into the whole details about why the modern day US and 1930's Germany are very different, from the loss of WW1, the economic downturn, the anger due to the Treaty of Versailles impacting Germany, the differences in courts and constitutions, and the differences of sizes and span of populations between Germany and the US, there are a lot of important distinctions that make the claim that both countries are on the exact same path a very illogical claim. Even if it is meant to make people more likely to vote and protest, it isn't effective.

But I wanted to make a simpler claim, one that I feel is something that makes the US a worse target for authoritarianism. And that is the fact that the US is one of the worst countries to take over to create a dictatorship. While the US has had it's struggles economically, socially, and in many people's love of populism, the US is incredibly stubborn.

If you were to look at the pandemic for example, the amount of anger and disapproval of lockdowns, mask mandates, vaccine requirements, and any other measure aimed at protecting public health was immense. Not to generalize, but people in the US tend to have a very obsessive desire to protect one's interest over anything else, which often gets insulted and made fun of by people around the globe, but this also makes taking over the US in the same way as the Soviet Union or 1930's Germany, or any other famous examples of authoritarian countries not that easy.

Also, the US is very desensitized to tragedies. While there have been notable instances of outcry and anger due to some of them, most of the time America tends to forget moments that in other places would be remembered for a lot longer, which makes the idea of a false flag potentially effective for any emotion that the public might feel, but that would quickly fade. This also gets forgotten by the Timothy Snyder's of the world which makes their hypotheses very off.

I'm not saying this as a "this couldn't happen here ever", but as a way of saying that it's not as simple as people like to say. You might have seen doomers online saying any random date, event, tragedy, weather event, election, or whatever else would be the act that would provoke martial law and the end of free will in America, but that never comes. In the event that such a plan were to be successful in changing the government in such a way, it wouldn't be the same as how most people are looking anxiously for.

So while I know that the NDAA has to pass the Senate and filibuster, and I'm not worried about any apocalyptic scenarios that spread online like the IDF attacking people on US Soil (One person in the comment of this article says that this bill is a sign that the admin won't cede power and that "Conflict is coming to America" for instance), I'm still pretty worried.

At the very least the Israeli provision would give a lot of vague assistance and cooperation with the two countries that isn't clearly defined in text, and unprecedented access to the US Military from a foreign country. And all discussions of this provision specifically seems to be on the doomer end of suggesting what the vague elements of it could be used for which have gotten me and a lot of people pretty worried.

Is the provision as well as the Save act capable of preventing this bill from passing, if things like the Save act were removed than could the Israeli military provision be allowed by moderate Dems in the Senate, could moderate Dems push this bill to the finish line due to support of anything Military/Israel, and what is the specific danger that this provision and the vague terms mean if it were to pass since nobody seems to know for sure?

I know that I tend to make a bunch of posts about doomers commenting about fear surrounding "rigging" either the 2024 or upcoming midterm elections, but I wanted to touch on an element that is always said, but is usually not touched on enough by people online, that being the fact that every single time that a new bad policy or action is announced, doomers take it as a sign that the upcoming elections will be rigged due to such horrible policy being so terrible that it has to be a sign that the confidence in announcing it is out of confidence in the results of a fixed election.

Now I want to mention something called Occam's Razor. For those that don't know, it means that when trying to figure out an observation, you should take the simplest explanation first as it is often easier to determine the correct answer.

I'm pointing this out because when you look at the possible reasoning for why the admin announces and pushes forward through various plans, policies, and announcements that look so terrible to most people, have horrible effects on everyone, and are bad pr for the Republican party, taking the belief that it's evidence towards the midterms or general election being stolen and thus, any anger at said actions wouldn't matter, it isn't the simplest or most logical explanation.

The more likely and simpler scenario is that this is an admin that doesn't think too far ahead, and when they think ahead, it is very shortsighted. Take for instance the recent plan to introduce tariffs on generic prescriptions that take until 2029 to be fully enacted. I decided to make this post after seeing multiple comments under Amandasmildtakes' comment section about how this plan was a sign that "he's doing this cause he knows the midterms will be rigged, 'just like 2024'".

Each of these comments received no backlash and in fact got multiple likes, which is tragic on an account that is dedicated to fighting doomer-ism.

First of all, without getting too far into it, the evidence towards fraud in 2024 is very limited and is more likely a result of echo chambers online and conspiracy theories being more rampant.

Second of all, the more likely scenario for this is that the admin is mad that the Supreme Court ruled against the initial tariffs (see the recent tariffs on Canada), this is a way to get money from pharmaceutical companies and those companies get money from consumers, the average voter will likely not take this into account when it comes time to vote, and this takes a long time to take effect, which like the Medicare cuts makes this a lot easier for people to forget about until it happens when the likely Democratic administration takes office.

These, while not simple bundled like this, are a lot easier to take in as money and belief in voters ignoring this VS. there being a grand conspiracy that voting doesn't matter cause all results are predetermined. And if this isn't simple enough, it could be reasoned that the admin did this because they didn't take into account what voters would think of this because of simple arrogance.

Every action or policy since the start of this administration has been used as the smoking gun that future elections are a lost cause, which is odd given this admin's lack of being able to keep secrets.

I am so tired of seeing the paranoia of so many people be used as evidence to encourage voter suppression. The policies being pushed forward aren't being done out of feeling invincible from elections, as the SAVE Act was made out of the direct panic over a midterms loss. There's no master plan taking place, it's just trying to reason the unreasonable.

So another day another doomer comment that made me annoyed enough that I wanted to make a post debunking the outrageous claim made. So in this case, a post from someone named Timothy Snyder with almost 200k followers on Instagram and who is followed by Amandasmildtakes which states, "Trump is pursuing this war in the hope that Iran carries out an act of terror in the US, and even if it doesn't, which I doubt it will, consider the possibility that Trump's people would fake one."

Now on the surface this guy seems to be pretty intelligent, being a historian who specializes in the Soviet Union and 1930's Germany. But this type of intelligence doesn't negate the fact that this claim about Iran leading to a false flag on US soil is just absolute fearmongering, and while researching this individual, I saw a Youtube short titled, "Undoing Democracy By Starting A Foreign War", in which case he claims that Trump will use the war to "suspend elections". So this type of fearmongering extends to other elements as well.

I'm not making this post as a way to just vent about my feelings on this, but as a way of informing people who see a reasonably trustworthy individual who is followed by one of the most realistic creators I've seen, Amanda, and believe the dystopian fan fiction that he is creating. Now do I believe that trying to interfere with elections is above this admin, no. But again, that likelihood, or rather unlikelihood, of success is important to note while taking this all in.

And when it comes to the main claim about False Flags, this is just a conspiracy theory at this point, and one that only has the evidence of what countries like Germany in the 1930's did rather than anything specific to our current time period. And all of this also ignores the fact that this type of power grab is connected to complete panic and anxiety over the midterms in which voter suppression tactics have to be used in order to protect from an outcome of a loss, which wouldn't be needed if this tactic was about to be used.

Also the military would be likely needed for this to work, in which I imagine the support would be basically nonexistent.

I get the fear that desperation could lead to every potential scheme imaginable to retain power, but considering how Americans forget tragedies within a matter of weeks and this is only being evidenced by people who usually claim that every single holiday is the day that "he's really gonna end democracy this time!", I don't have a lot of faith in this claim.

While searching about Snyder I didn't find any real criticism online, but I feel like making posts about this which just spread anxiety with no real purpose other than telling people to "be prepared" is not a good use of time.

One of the biggest issues that I've noticed from doomers on the internet is a tendency to be a lot more active when it comes to already tense situations. Whether it be things such as the Iran War, concerns over the Midterms, worry about power grabs by the federal government, or any assortment of proposed legislation from congress, doomers tend to latch on to the most critical and tense situations, and often make it sound a lot worse and usually more hopeless than it is by their "theories" about it.

So I wanted to quickly go over some of the most common ways in which doomers make a bad or just tense and ongoing situation into a much scarier thing, and discuss why it's okay to take a situation at face value and not put it as evidence of a "grand plan to overthrow freedom/end the world/end elections."

One of the most tense and currently not great situations is the Iran War. This has been ongoing, and the threat of higher prices for oil and food for most of the world including the US, and the danger of unregulated attacks on Iran by the US has been palpable since the beginning of the conflict, I've even made multiple seeking optimism posts on the subject and will likely continue given how grim the conflict seems.

But this has of course led to doomers fantasizing about every terrible thing under the sun about this. From the economic results of this supposedly leading us to a "recession at least, possibly a depression, maybe even economic collapse where the dollar is replaced by a digital currency and all purchases are watched", to the conflict being an excuse for Trump to "suspend midterms in a national emergency and everyone will just allow it to happen and stuff", to the belief that this conflict will lead to one of the three main countries involved "using a nuke and the end of the world begins". Truly great theories with no possible problems with them.

Now from the concern over the economic side, prices are likely to rise, especially as the Red Sea is being blockaded on top of the Strait of Hormuz, but the most likely worst case scenario from this is a recession type situation, with anything from a full depression or higher being pretty unlikely in the given situation. For the ending elections theory, that's not how this works. Elections are run by states, and courts won't let this happen, and no, this isn't something he can avoid listening to courts on. And if it was tried, it wouldn't make it past a day at the most before getting overturned. And for the nuclear theory, this is the most unlikely scenario of the three, and that is saying something.

And for the fear surrounding the midterms, there has been a lot of concern over how this situation is unfolding. Fear about the Supreme court ruling which overturned key parts of the VRA leading to Gerrymandering policies being rampant in southern states, coupled with voter suppression techniques across the country like the Dallas Primary Polling place fiasco earlier this year could likely be tried again, and could damage turnout for many voters. All of this points to a larger effort to sabotage the ability for many to vote to prevent Dems from winning the midterms.

But in terms of the doomer theories such as "he'll cancel elections, ignore the results, declare a national emergency, use the Eisenhower Orders to take power over elections, "hack the machines", or any combination of all of these, that's pretty ridiculous.

So again, elections can't be cancelled or postponed even in times of conflict or due to a national emergency type declaration, the Eisenhower orders are executive orders and can be overturned by a judge (effectively they don't mean anything if pushed forward), ignoring the results don't make them go away, and direct interference with the tech is impossible for enough of the country to work. And again, even if any of these were tried they would fail easily. The acts of voter suppression are more likely to take place, and even potentially work.

Both in terms of Iran and Elections, there is a direct fear about a myriad of issues that "could arise", rather than the more likely issues that could result from this. Issues like voter suppression, economic impacts due to oil and fertilizer shortages, claims of fraud, and damage to infrastructure in Iran are terrible, each with their own issues which could affect countless individuals and should be taken seriously, but are usually forgotten in favor of much more outrageous claims that make those smaller issues easily ignored.

There is a belief online that things have to be expressed in a larger way to be taken more seriously. A movie can't be just mediocre or fine, it has to be the greatest piece of cinema ever made or a travesty of film-making, and in a similar manner, issues in the world can't be smaller, with direct impact in individual communities or outcomes, there has to be dystopia or apocalypse scenarios.

This is also why topics like voting aren't taken seriously by many doomers, and instead focus is put into "revolution" instead, even after what happened in Hungary earlier this year which proved voting does have an impact. As long as countries like Nicaragua say elections aren't happening, than that is apparently proof that the US will do the same thing.

The point of optimism in this case isn't to say that issues won't arise and that everything will be perfect, but that the issues that arise aren't as over the top bad as people might claim it is. Social Media loves to exaggerate and so many people fall into echo chambers about why we're "cooked", rather than there being issues that need to be addressed.

And just like how the claims that freedom of speech has been removed and all people against what is happening will be arrested and sent to jail only helps make people less afraid to speak out and thus helps limit freedom of speech, the claims that everything is bad and thus can't be changed only limits the amount of voters at the polls to help change how things are. It's a self fulfilling prophecy.

So not only is another oil route being blocked which would reduce the global oil supply by 7%, on top of the blocked supply from the strait of Hormuz, but this is after Iran attacked desalination plants in Kuwait, and Iran reported that one of their plants was attacked separately as well.

I've seen various doomers claiming that this is a sign that "we haven't even seen how high prices will go because of this war", and how "this is leading to unspeakable calamity" and other vague things that I don't believe are true, but have just been pretty anxiety reducing nonetheless.

I'm more worried about those in the region that are running out of electricity and water due to this war, as well as the cost of oil, food, and general goods for the US, especially as reserves begin to run out and this blockade begins to be felt on top of the other blockade.

Over the last couple of years, I've heard a plethora of various theories and fears about large, grandiose plans to take over the systems of voting or grabbing power and creating a dictatorship in the US. I won't even mention the fearmongering surrounding the "end of the world" type theories because that's a whole other can of worms, but I wanted to make a brief reminder on how the systems of "national emergency" type behaviors don't really allow for full takeovers that many people are afraid of.

The most straightforward claim I've seen tossed around, including even by individuals such as Ty Cobb who was a lawyer in the first Trump Admin, that being of a "National Emergency" being declared. While there's been a seemingly moderate amount of doomers attributing this to the fears of dictatorship, this has been mostly used to fearmonger about interference with voting, in which case all voting will apparently be taken by the federal government where interference and voter suppression can run rampant.

Now I'll just say this: this isn't how national emergencies work at all. National emergencies have in the past, come and gone. And luckily for us, the constitution maintains that voting and the related operations are to be controlled by states, and a national emergency relating to voting wouldn't give emergency override to the executive branch. And even if this was used as reasoning for trying to interfere in elections, it would get shut down immediately, even by the Supreme Court as they would then have to allow a Democratic president to have the same powers in the event of something as easy to declare as a national emergency.

Two of them are so similar that I'll just pair them together, that being the common fear of "Martial Law/Insurrection Act". Now from what I can tell, and from what people on this sub have said previously, martial law specifically doesn't really exist in any sort of plan or outline. And in the even of calling for the insurrection act, not only does voting still remain in state control, regardless of this declaration or not, but the act of taking over the entire country still requires the assistance of constitutionally dedicated military members, congress, courts, the supreme court, and enough of the country to bow down rather than protesting. And there isn't enough of the military willing to physically attack US citizens for a literal coup to cover the entirety of this large of a country.

Also, just like how a "revolution" can't happen because of how big of a country this is and how separated many people are, keeping enough of the US under a dictatorship in a country this size isn't realistic either. (Also the pandemic was proof of how Americans resist minor inconveniences, let alone control over all freedoms)

And for my personal favorite claim to hear based off of how ridiculous it is, the Eisenhower Emergency Executive Orders. Brought to you by many doomers, as well as supposed "Paragons of Truth" The Daily Beast and The Nation Magazine, this claim indicates that the Eisenhower Admin created a list of Emergency Executive Orders to be used in the event of something as large as a nuclear attack on US soil in which case America might (again they had no knowledge of the 2020 pandemic and how Americans reacted to being told to wear masks for a widespread virus) give up temporary freedoms in the pursuit of protection from such a calamity. Of course you can see how doomers found this could lead to Trump "Using the election or something else as a pretext to takeover the country, end democracy, end elections, arrest political opponents, and all hope is lost."

Now, these are executive orders, regardless of purpose or the admin it was originated in. As we've discussed before, EOs are not laws, and they can be turned over in the event a court thinks it should be. Even if he made an executive order to say courts don't matter, they still do, and they'll just rule against them. One of the reasons people claim that this apparently effective tool was never used was that he needed to "lay the groundwork" by gradually preparing the country for this plan, one that will supposedly be ready for the midterms and nothing can stop. Yes this is the reasoning to ignore that Trump would have ripped open the folder holding these regardless of if "preparations were ready", the millisecond he got into the Oval Office for this term.

That's one of the main reasons a lot of these claims don't work, voting and the act of freedom in America would have been tampered with any number of these things months ago, at the very least, if they could be used. And even if they were to be used in any capacity, they would be tossed out while a Judge was laughing about how ridiculous it is.

I just think of the phrase, "If he could do this plan and succeed, why hasn't he?". And even if one of these might be tried, I can bet that it will fail all the same.

So in what I hope to be the last part of this recent Doomer Dictatorship Theory Saga, I wanted to discuss an element of the admin's recent actions that has been one of the main pieces of evidence in this recent resurgence in the belief that we are going to enter into a "dictatorship where all opposition to the admin leads to you being arrested and all freedom ends in America", and that is the recent plan to restrict visa access to those linked toward "far-left terrorist groups", which given the admin could be basically anyone they don't like.

And first of all, this plan is just an excuse to attack political enemies by calling them "dangerous". And this is something that should be taken seriously for what it is, regardless of effectiveness.

That being said, I don't know if it would be that effective. This would have to go through the courts and we all know how that typically goes. And this type of restriction could easily be proven to be a first-amendment violation due to the partisan nature of the language used.

On top of this, many people discussing this seem to imply that the decision would impact the ability of any left-wing individuals from leaving the country at all, where as the decision is seemingly aimed at targeting the visas of those entering the country, specifically immigrants.

While this on the surface might not mean much, and this isn't meant to disregard those who are still affected by this and the constitutional impact this has, and this memo if allowed could easily be adjusted to affect more people, but it is important because many doomers have brought this on as one of the key signs that left-wing people are to be "arrested en masse".

The belief being that anyone on the left leaving the country in a panic could be prevented in doing so and allowing for an attack on the political enemies of this administration. This plan has since the announcement been used by doomers in arguing that the days of dictatorship are here, and that freedom itself will be gone as a concept. But this goes against their argument if it's about their war over immigration rather than attacking every critic of the admin.

Again I won't say that this is in any way good, but the idea that this is part of a larger scheme to attack the political opposition and invoke the end of democracy and freedom of speech isn't realistic at all.

To make this short, mostly because I don't want to get banned for posting too much but I still figured I should make a post about this, I recently came across a video from an account called, "January Walker". According to this woman's bio, she was someone who ran for congress in 2022 in Utah and was apparently someone in the scientific community.

This video was of her initially softly crying before relaying that she "Was done, and leaving humanity to be extinct, cause she had the answer." Apparently the story is that according to her, Data Centers don't need water, they can use Nuclear Energy. So the government is building nuclear plants right on fault lines and data centers nearby which "will lead to the Great Salt Lake drying up, all bees dying, and subsequently all Humans and all life on Earth Dying."

"This sounds horrible", you're thinking. But this video takes a turn with the reveal that all issues with data centers are able to be fixed, with a computer update. One that, coincidentally, January came up with. But according to her, the corporations won't even see it, and have after this, "Stalked her so she is now on the run." Also she apparently in other posts has described how she has the cure for cancer.

Now if this sounds not in any way coherent, it's not, and this is from someone who watched this video multiple times over.

I've seen many different people selling many different stories, many of them being misinformed. From my time on the internet, I've seen countless conspiracy theorists, opportunists, con-artists, and grifters. So this wasn't the most shocking to see someone using a fear of data centers/climate change as a way of getting attention from it. But looking back at the comments made me more irritated by all of this.

So many people commented with absolute trust and faith in this woman for giving the truth about this "evil plan which would end all humanity", and topping it off with the claim that she herself holds the answer to the damaging effects of data centers emissions and water usage. The amount of people who didn't buy this were few and far between, and the ones that I did see were often yelled at by those who felt very trusting towards this person.

I won't say for certain if the claims specifically about nuclear power plants being built on fault lines, data centers being built nearby, and the potential for this to lead to bees dying, humanity dying, and many different species dying as a result, mostly because unlike January, I try to tell the truth about what I know when I post online, but the trustworthiness of a person who is claiming to have the cures for two incredibly major issues in the world, but claims that she's not trusted by enough people or is being persecuted for her discoveries like she just invented Frankenstein's monster in a lab, is not enough for me to take her at her word.

Wrapping this back up to politics, when it comes to issues that are very tense and very anxiety inducing for many people, you're gonna see a large number of people try to take advantage of that panic to spread lies for their own benefit, and many of them will wear the badge of a crusader of truth, regardless of the hate or danger to themselves that may come of it. Basically you're gonna see liars pretending their honorable in order for you to let your guard down.

Data Centers and Cancer don't have easy solutions, but this woman sells the idea that she has that. Just like doomers online know that voting and dedication to change aren't exciting, so they sell the idea that a revolution or dictatorship are the only possibilities. In the event that someone, especially doomers, try to tell you how they're the only people who know that "the end is nigh", than you probably shouldn't take them for their word.